IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/ectrin/v28y2020i3p467-485.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are children an incentive or a disincentive for migration? Evidence from Vietnam

Author

Listed:
  • Cuong Nguyen
  • Anh Tran

Abstract

This study analyzes the influence of children on household migration decisions using data on current internal movement in Vietnam a country that has experienced significant rural–urban migration in the recent years. Families with children usually have three migration choices: move together, stay together or send only one parent to work afar. Using an instrumental variable approach, we show that having an additional child reduces the probability of household migration by 0.0115, while it increases the likelihood of fathers’ migration by 0.0121. These effects suggest that households with more children may be less mobile but may have a greater economic need for migration.

Suggested Citation

  • Cuong Nguyen & Anh Tran, 2020. "Are children an incentive or a disincentive for migration? Evidence from Vietnam," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 467-485, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:ectrin:v:28:y:2020:i:3:p:467-485
    DOI: 10.1111/ecot.12246
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecot.12246
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ecot.12246?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 69-85, Fall.
    2. Becker, Gary S & Tomes, Nigel, 1976. "Child Endowments and the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 143-162, August.
    3. Adams, Richard Jr. & Page, John, 2005. "Do international migration and remittances reduce poverty in developing countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1645-1669, October.
    4. Sonia Bhalotra & Damian Clarke, 2019. "Twin Birth and Maternal Condition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(5), pages 853-864, December.
    5. Hoang, Thu Huong & Nguyen, Viet Cuong, 2014. "Do Parents Choose the Sex of their Children? Evidence from Vietnam," MPRA Paper 70151, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Stark, Oded & Bloom, David E, 1985. "The New Economics of Labor Migration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 173-178, May.
    7. Massimiliano Bratti & Simona Fiore & Mariapia Mendola, 2020. "The impact of family size and sibling structure on the great Mexico–USA migration," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 483-529, April.
    8. Jungmin Lee, 2008. "Sibling size and investment in children’s education: an asian instrument," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 21(4), pages 855-875, October.
    9. Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Hiraga, Masako & Viet Nguyen, Cuong, 2022. "Childcare and maternal employment: Evidence from Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    10. Angrist, Joshua D, 2001. "Estimations of Limited Dependent Variable Models with Dummy Endogenous Regressors: Simple Strategies for Empirical Practice," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 19(1), pages 2-16, January.
    11. Sarma & Parinduri, 2015. "Children and maternal migration: evidence from exogenous variations in family size," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(15), pages 1184-1187, October.
    12. McKenzie, David & Sasin, Marcin J., 2007. "Migration, remittances, poverty, and human capital : conceptual and empirical challenges," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4272, The World Bank.
    13. Mincer, Jacob, 1978. "Family Migration Decisions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 749-773, October.
    14. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1980. "Testing the Quantity-Quality Fertility Model: The Use of Twins as a Natural Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 227-240, January.
    15. Acosta, Pablo & Calderon, Cesar & Fajnzylber, Pablo & Lopez, Humberto, 2008. "What is the Impact of International Remittances on Poverty and Inequality in Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 89-114, January.
    16. Alan de Brauw & Tomoko Harigaya, 2007. "Seasonal Migration and Improving Living Standards in Vietnam," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(2), pages 430-447.
    17. Raven Molloy & Christopher L. Smith & Abigail Wozniak, 2011. "Internal Migration in the United States," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 173-196, Summer.
    18. Viet Nguyen, Cuong, 2016. "Does parental migration really benefit left-behind children? Comparative evidence from Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 230-239.
    19. de Haan, Monique, 2010. "Birth order, family size and educational attainment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 576-588, August.
    20. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2015. "Control Function Methods in Applied Econometrics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 420-445.
    21. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children's Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 669-700.
    22. Gary S. Becker & H. Gregg Lewis, 1974. "Interaction between Quantity and Quality of Children," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital, pages 81-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Anzelika Zaiceva & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2008. "Scale, diversity, and determinants of labour migration in Europe," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 24(3), pages 428-452, Autumn.
    24. Stark, Oded & Taylor, J Edward, 1991. "Migration Incentives, Migration Types: The Role of Relative Deprivation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(408), pages 1163-1178, September.
    25. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    26. Charles Ackah & Denis Medvedev, 2012. "Internal migration in Ghana: determinants and welfare impacts," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(10), pages 764-784, August.
    27. Heckman, James J. & Lalonde, Robert J. & Smith, Jeffrey A., 1999. "The economics and econometrics of active labor market programs," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1865-2097, Elsevier.
    28. Joshua Angrist & Victor Lavy & Analia Schlosser, 2010. "Multiple Experiments for the Causal Link between the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(4), pages 773-824, October.
    29. repec:fth:prinin:455 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Rivers, Douglas & Vuong, Quang H., 1988. "Limited information estimators and exogeneity tests for simultaneous probit models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 347-366, November.
    31. Cuong Viet Nguyen & Marrit Van den Berg & Robert Lensink, 2011. "The impact of work and non‐work migration on household welfare, poverty and inequality," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 19(4), pages 771-799, October.
    32. Joshua Angrist & Alan Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Working Papers 834, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    33. SeongWoo Lee & Curtis C. Roseman, 1999. "Migration Determinants and Employment Consequences of White and Black Families, 1985–1990," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 75(2), pages 109-133, April.
    34. Martin Brockerhoff, 1999. "Urban Growth in Developing Countries: A Review of Projections and Predictions," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 25(4), pages 757-778, December.
    35. Angrist, Joshua D, 2001. "Estimations of Limited Dependent Variable Models with Dummy Endogenous Regressors: Simple Strategies for Empirical Practice: Reply," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 19(1), pages 27-28, January.
    36. Yusuf Emre Akgunduz & Janneke Plantenga, 2018. "Child Care Prices And Maternal Employment: A Meta†Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 118-133, February.
    37. Christophe Z. Guilmoto, 2012. "Son Preference, Sex Selection, and Kinship in Vietnam," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 38(1), pages 31-54, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martin Guzi & Štěpán Mikula, 2022. "Reforms that keep you at home: The effects of economic transition on migration," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 289-310, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Mont & Cuong Viet Nguyen & Anh Tran, 2020. "The Effect of Sibship Size on Children’s Outcomes: Evidence from Vietnam," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(1), pages 147-173, February.
    2. Arouri, Mohamed & Ben Youssef, Adel & Nguyen, Cuong, 2017. "Does urbanization reduce rural poverty? Evidence from Vietnam," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 253-270.
    3. Nguyen, Cuong Viet & Nguyen, Hoa Quynh, 2015. "Do internal and international remittances matter to health, education and labor of children and adolescents? The case of Vietnam," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 28-34.
    4. Mont, Daniel & Nguyen, Cuong, 2013. "Does Parental Disability Matter to Child Education? Evidence from Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 88-107.
    5. Long Thanh Giang & Cuong Viet Nguyen & Hoa Quynh Nguyen, 2020. "The Impacts of Economic Growth and Governance on Migration: Evidence from Vietnam," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(4), pages 1195-1229, September.
    6. Long Thanh Giang & Cuong Viet Nguyen & Tuyen Quang Tran & Vu Thieu, 2017. "Does Firm Agglomeration Matter to Labor and Education of Local Children? Evidence in Vietnam," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 10(4), pages 1015-1041, December.
    7. Cuong Viet Nguyen, 2022. "The effect of preschool attendance on Children's health: Evidence from a lower middle‐income country," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(8), pages 1558-1589, August.
    8. Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Hiraga, Masako & Viet Nguyen, Cuong, 2022. "Childcare and maternal employment: Evidence from Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    9. Nguyen Viet Cuong, 2014. "Does Urbanization Help Poverty Reduction in Rural Areas? Evidence from a Developing Country," Working Papers 2014-178, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    10. Christina J. Diaz & Jeremy E. Fiel, 2021. "When Size Matters: IV Estimates of Sibship Size on Educational Attainment in the U.S," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(6), pages 1195-1220, December.
    11. Nguyen Viet Cuong & Vu Hoang Linh, 2018. "The Impact of Migration and Remittances on Household Welfare: Evidence from Vietnam," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 945-963, November.
    12. Nguyen, Cuong, 2012. "Does Urbanization Help Poverty Reduction in Rural Areas?Evidence from a Developing Country," MPRA Paper 48660, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Chen, Qihui, 2021. "Population policy, family size and child malnutrition in Vietnam – Testing the trade-off between child quantity and quality from a child nutrition perspective," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    14. Van Campenhout, Bjorn, 2016. "Fertility, Agricultural Labor Supply, and Production: Instrumental Variable Evidence from Uganda," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 581-607, December.
    15. Ponczek, Vladimir Pinheiro & Souza, André Portela Fernandes de, 2007. "The causal effect of family size on child labor and education," Textos para discussão 162, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    16. Dasgupta, Kabir & Solomon, Keisha T., 2018. "Family size effects on childhood obesity: Evidence on the quantity-quality trade-off using the NLSY," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 42-55.
    17. Mohamed El Hedi Arouri & Nguyen Viet Cuong, 2018. "On the Impact of Household Asset level and Inequality on Inter-governorate Migration: Evidence from Egypt," Working Papers 1182, Economic Research Forum, revised 12 Apr 2018.
    18. Kabir Dasgupta & Keisha T.-Solomon, 2017. "Family Size Effects on Child Health: Evidence on the Quantity-Quality Trade-off using the NLSY," Working Papers 2017-04, Auckland University of Technology, Department of Economics.
    19. Hung-Han Lin, 2018. "Number of siblings and educational attainment: application of son preference," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 83-86, January.
    20. Nguyen, Cuong Viet, 2021. "Do weather extremes induce people to move? Evidence from Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 118-141.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:ectrin:v:28:y:2020:i:3:p:467-485. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)2577-6983 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.